The days have been glorious! Fall is still warm (after a cold spell) and perhaps 80 degrees by next week! No rain predicted. Dry and warm. How fantastic!
You can tell by the pictures above that Jack had a crib party. Angela sent the picture with the caption underneath, "He's such a good host." And doesn't he look like he is! How do you like Chloe's socks? Life is never dull with triplets! The second picture is of Chloe with Jeff's caption, "Queen of the Living Room." I hope you like Katie's first ponytail, too. It's quite something!
The pond dredging has just finished after 7 days. Aaron Armitage came over with his drag to smooth down the churned up soil - which is pretty hard to do with millions of rocks all around. It's times like these that I am really aware this IS a gravel pit! Now that all the pond has been cleaned out and the shoreline re-sculptured, I can get new landscaping going. I have a call into Randy at Ekana Nursery for some help in that department. I want to plant some nice trees around the pond - and forget about box elder trees! It's so nice to know that the pond is deeper and cleaned out. The fish seem to like it, too! We have lots of sand/gravel loads dumped around the land to be used to contour the hills (much needed!). In fact, the official tally of dump truck loads is: 74 loads of dirt, and 97 loads of mud. A lot of that mud is in the old swamp, but some of it is on the south side of the pond on the hill and even further south ... over the hill. Lots of dirt piles, too. What a wonderful mess! Next year will be a fun one as these piles of sand and gravel (and gunk) get spread around.
The first trio of pictures of the dredging takes place on the lower level beach. The next row is: working in front of the cottage, working in front of the garden and a long view from the south side of the pond. The next row of pictures shows the view from the beach, just one of many bigger rocks, and Aaron moving some of the new piles of dirt over the cement pieces I had dumped this year and last year at my Beemerville gate. The last row shows the finished dredging work, taken this evening.
Karl Hawbaker suggested I sculpture the south bank back at a more gentle slope and I liked it so well I decided to do the same thing for the lower level by the beach on the north side of the pond. It looks really much better and will be much more mowable (the name of the game here at this ponderosa!). Oh dear Reader, you must see it! Karl's next suggestion is to build a pier along the south side of the pond, curling it around the western edge of the pond. Karl's got great ideas...I just have to come up with the money! One day, Karl, Dave and I spent hours dreaming about where to put the house on top of the hill. Lots of house sites, and lots of dreaming! Nothing makes me happier!
Have a pleasant evening, dear Reader. And come for a visit and personal tour! Bring your imagination, too!